Ethical Investing from a Jewish Perspective

As a sector of the investment market, ethical investment has grown tremendously over the past decade. Many different types of ethics mutual funds now exist, ranging from those that prohibit certain investments for moral reasons to those that exclude companies for religious reasons. At present, a number of Christian- and Moslem-based funds are functioning. A Jewish-based ethical fund is, however, sorely lacking, and the questions as to whether Judaism could provide a framework for such a fund has not been thoroughly explored. As a preliminary step to the establishment of a Jewish mutual fund, the authors argue that based on traditional orthodox Judaism and its ancient sources, several basic Jewish investment principles exist that Jewish investors should attempt to consider when making investment decisions. In order to best understand the circumstances upon which a Jewish mutual fund could be established, the paper first discusses the growth of ethical investment and religious-based investment in particular.